Christopher Logue

Christopher Logue, (born November 23, 1926, Portsmouth, Hampshire, England—died December 2, 2011, London), English poet, playwright, journalist, and actor, who was one of the leaders in the movement to bring poetry closer to the popular experience. His own pungent verse has been read to jazz accompaniment, sung, and printed on posters. It is engaged politically and owes much to the work of Bertolt Brecht and to the English ballad tradition.

Logue served in the British army from 1944 to 1948. His first book of poetry was Wand and Quadrant (1953), and he adapted 20 of Pablo Neruda’s poems as The Man Who Told His Love (1958). Books of poetry include Logue’s A.B.C. (1966), New Numbers (1969), and Ode to the Dodo: Poems from 1953 to 1978 (1981). From the 1960s he worked on a remarkably fresh adaptation of Homer’sIliad, several sections of which were published, including Patrocleia (1962), Pax (1967), War Music (1981), All Day Permanent Red (2003), and Cold Calls (2005). The works were collected, along with a previously unpublished final chapter that was completed by the poet Christopher Reid, as War Music: An Account of Homer’s Iliad (2015). For many years Logue wrote the “True Stories” featured in the British satirical journal Private Eye.

He also acted in several television, movie, and stage roles. In 2007 Logue was made a Commander of the British Empire.

This article was most recently revised and updated by Richard Pallardy, Research Editor.